My Anarchism: I and My Property

"If it is right for me, it is right. It is possible that it is wrong for others: Let them take care of themselves." — Max Stirner

Individuals do not reach their own uniqueness because of external abstractions, whether it be God, the State, laws, morality, or some other “higher or sacred” cause. Individuals who give these mental authorities power over themselves are therefore subjugating themselves. Within the political sphere, be it liberal or conservative, the individual is merely the property of some higher cause and must not dare to be unique. In other words, the Egoist poses a problem. In declaring “I am nothing,” I free myself to create myself as a unique individual.

"I am not nothing in the sense of emptiness, but I am the creative nothing,
the nothing out of which I myself as creator create everything." — Max Stirner

I am nothing but the creative force within my own life. I create the life that I want. I create whatever meaning I want it to have. I create the relationships I desire to have. My anarchism is influenced by the ideas of the German “philosopher” Max Stirner. Does that mean his ideas are part of some fixed ideology? The answer is no. That would be something else exerting control over me. I do not think that the individual can fully be a liberated, unique individual within some sacred political or economic system but rather within one of voluntary, mutually beneficial associations. From an economic perspective, I think mutualism could be utilized for economic autonomy and trade based on mutual benefit and one’s self-interest.

"There is everywhere a great abundance of political, social, ecclesiastical, scientific, artistic, moral, and other corpses, and until they are all consumed, the air will not be clean and the breath of living beings will be oppressed." — Max Stirner

Mental phantoms still persist to this day for many people. I am not free in any state. That state could be some political monopoly over a specific territory or some perceived fixed state of being. My desire for liberation is a fight against mental phantoms as well as physical constraints like arbitrary regulations, laws, or even physical limitations. It is also a fight against identity itself, as identity denotes sameness. Gender and race are phantoms that subjugate me based on arbitrary expectations tied to sex and skin tone.

I am I. I have certain properties, but I am not my properties; rather, my properties are part of my own creative nothing—a canvas upon which I create the me that I desire to be. It is a constant process of becoming. I have no fixed identity. I desire no fixed state of being but rather one of continuous evolution. "Transsexual" is a property through which I exert ownership over my physical sex characteristics, shaping them as I desire, as my biological sex does not determine who I am. "Anarchist" is a property that I utilize to assert personal autonomy. I reject the legitimacy of all hierarchical systems that seek to dominate me. "Egoist" is a property I utilize as a form of self-analysis to ensure my thoughts are of my own creation.